New Group Holds Panels to Open Honest Dialogues

Just a few months ago, Carla DeSantis Black relocated to Austin from Seattle, where she started her career in music in the early ’80s as a member of an all female rock and cover band (ala The Go-Go’s). It was early on where she began to experience first hand the stereotypes placed on female musicians. She has found that even today many of those stereotypes persist – women as sex symbols, inferior talent, far fewer lead guitarists and front and center performers.

She has faced an uphill battle in her quest to have women in music taken as seriously as their male counterparts. She eventually parted ways with her former band and set out to create an organization that celebrated female talent in the music industry. Black started an independent magazine dedicated to just that, called Rock-R-Grl, which touted initiatives much like the GEMS club for girls excelling in science and math, only instead of science and math Black focused on music. Rock-R-Grl eventually grew to include a yearly conference, which carried on long after the magazine ended. Her first conference was warmly received in the Seattle area and featured The Indigo Girls and Courtney Love. The aim was to eliminate the novelty factor of women in music and encourage women and young girls to pursue endeavors in music and entertainment.

Just this year Black made the move to Austin because of the vast networking opportunities with women in music. On November 12, she hosted Austin’s first MEOW (Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women) Day at Momo’s Club, right in the heart of Austin’s entertainment district.

The event lasted all day and featured panels by some of Austin’s most influential women in the industry, including Sara Hickman (singer/songwriter), Rose Reyes (music director for Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau), Suzanna Choffel (singer/songwriter), Christa Hillhouse (4 Non Blondes), Emily Marks (Girls Rock Camp Austin), Caroline Burrus (Austin City Limits), Carolyn Schwartz (Health Alliance for Austin Musicians), and Patrice Pike (singer/songwriter). These were just a few of the panelists who discussed pressing issues during the first MEOW conference.

Carla DeSantis Black seeks to develop MEOW even further to include scholarship opportunities for women and girls seeking to develop a career in music. For more info please visit www.meowonline.org.